Border Reivers group on facebook!

[Stirling Thompson]

Came across this in my wanderings! Maybe we can pick up a few new members!

I'M A BORDER REIVER AND PROUD.
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5041528182&ref=mf

I joined the group and left them a link to our website!

Also found a Thomson group with 992 members!
   T-H-O-M-S-O-N
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2213023689&ref=search&sid=1626855926.2351183556..1

I dropped the guy a line about being discriminatory about the 'P' and invited him to check out our website.

[Donna]

We can always count on our friend Stu 
I just read somewhere that you're about to retire!  Congrats, you'll love it!

Donna

[Forum_mgr]

GOOD THINKING!  Hope that guy spreads your email around to those 992 members!

Facebook - maybe I need to spend more time there.

F.M.

[Scott Thomson]

Hmm, I certainly understand their frustrations, I've spent my entire life having to correct people on the spelling of my surname. This is particularly frustrating when you live in Scotland, where the Thompson spelling is rather uncommon.

In Scotland Thompson is regarded as an English surname that is of no relation to the Scottish Thomson name. Whether that is true or not, it certainly is the perception.

I worked in the kilt/tartan industry for many years and I can say that if a customer named Thompson was to ask which tartan he was, he would be told that there was no tartan for them, the tartan was for the Thomson surname only. However this may have changed now.

[Stirling Thompson]

Hey Scott! Since you spell your name the right way... you want to hop over to the T-H-O-M-S-O-N group and join there and see if you can drum up some members for us. We could certainly use some (or all) of their 995 members to help make our case with Lord Lyon to be recognized.

[Scott Thomson]

Lol, I'll give it a go, but I wouldn't hold out much hope

[Mary]

I'm sorry, but it's not right.  

I am a Thompson by ancestry and one by marriage. Why does it make us second-class citizens because some English-speaking immigration official put a "P" in the names of who-knows-how-many Thomsons when they arrived on our shores? That doesn't make us English! And for those whose ancestors went from Scotland to Ireland to the US..........they aren't English either! They still trace their history back to Scotland. The English were lucky because their genealogy hunts are far less complicated than ours!

So, I don't understand why some Scots proudly treat those of us with the 'accepted at entry' (Thompson) spelling as lepers. They should be proud there are so many of us and that we CARE about our heritage and promote and support it! If we didn't, darned few people would be interested in Scottish kilts and games..... and there would be less tourism there!

So, let's get the word out. We are the same people and there are ThomPsons in Scotland all the way back to the 12th century. Remember, the border area of Scotland had a border that went all over the place and the spelling of one's name could have varied based on where the border was at the time! There's all sorts of possibilities other than trying to claim we are ENGLISH! I mean, really......my one grandfather immigrated from Wales and when he got to New York and went through processing, they changed his name from Davies to Davis! It took him years to get it corrected so he could get a passport to go back for a visit. That's far worse than adding a "p" that you do hear a glottal stop for!

So, Thomson or Thompson --- doesn't matter!!!!! It's just spelling and some who proudly claim Thomson now could have spelled their names differently through the centuries too ....tomson, tamson, thomason, thom, thamsen, thomsone, thomeson, etc. They're all in the records we've researched  

[Scott Thomson]

I agree with you 100% Mary, I don't think that the spelling is important, and I certainly wouldn't be on this forum if I thought it was.

To be fair I think it is done in jest for the most part, and isn't intended to be taken seriously. But there are some strange people out there who for them the spelling is everything, and I don't just mean Thom(p)sons. As I mentioned in my previous post I used to work in a kilt store in Aberdeen many years ago, and it was an opportunity to get to speak to lots of people about there heritage and such like. I can tell you it was a revelation. I met MacIntoshes who wouldn't accept that Mackintosh was an alternative spelling, and the same for johnston/e's too. The most extreme was an older professor like chap called MacDonald,(who really should have known better), refuse to wear a hire kilt because we had spelled it McDonald on the label!

It all boils down to ignorance of the fact that that spelling of names hasn't always been fixed or adhered to as rigidly as it is in today's society.

I notice somebody has already posted a link to this forum on the T-H-O-M-S-O-N page, so it'll be interesting to see if there will be a surge in membership.

[Jon Heller]

That was probably me -- I posted something on there a while back, although I don't think there was any response. That group was made more for the thomsons would always have their name spelled with a "p". That used to drive my grandfather crazy so that group really made me laugh. How about creating a group on facebook dedicated to Clan Thom(p)son specifically? Facebook is a great tool for advertising.... I've had a lot of success using it to advertise events for the pipe band.

[Mary]

Did that!  Michael Thompson in Colorado is managing the site......... I'll try posting the URL - it worked for me, but .......... 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clan-Thompson-Society/98310815209

[Mary]

Hi Scott!

Whew!  Thought I might have offended you with my post, but I finally just had to say it!  The nonsense of it drives my mad! I've had sooooooo many people try to tell me that names with the Mc instead of Mac were IRISH!  It's an abbreviation, ya'll! I think, based on old documents that I've seen, that it may have started as a bit of shorthand when writing letters. You see all sorts of abbreviations in old documents -sometimes, I can't figure out what the abbreviation meant! I'd probably have gone into the back room while the MacDonald was there and magically produced another kilt with a tag spelled with the MAC! 

Barbara Moore had a friend send her a lot of pictures of Scotland in the snow.......it's gorgeous! I think the only time I'll ever be able to afford a trip over will be during the winter uglies.......it would be fine with lovely snow, but I just know I'd get grey skies and brown mud..... this would have been the year! 

[Jon Heller]

Fantastic! I became a fan...

[Forum_mgr]

As, I believe, our Aussie members would say - "Good on ya, Jon!" 

F.M.

[Scott Thomson]

Hi Mary,

Yeah we've certainly had our fair share of the snow this year, it's the worst it's been since the early eighties I believe. Glenshee ski resort was the busiest it's been in decades.

[Danny Thompson]

Hi Mary..
Interesting subject...it effects me as i am Thompson and my grandfather married a Thomson...he he. so i have both in my family tree and also a Smith Thompson which i think is Irish...the Smith bit.
I think that in years gone by some people couldn't write or spell...a bit like me!...so you got some wrote it as they said it..some with the P and some without...I think its all the same....tomatoes or ta-mat-toes.